Governance in Africa

Ever since first being invited to lecture at international seminars on corporate governance in Africa in 1999, we have had a strong personal interest in the continent and how we might help companies, parastatals and government organisations understand and achieve good governance. Indeed we have decided to make Africa a major focus of this website, analysing the state of governance on the continent and taking into account local issues in applying our approach.

We believe passionately that all people in all nations have the potential to improve their circumstances. Their ability to do this is clearly affected by the governance of the country, in both the public and private sectors. We also believe that change is possible in all nations and there are encouraging signs from all over the world that this is beginning to happen. Indeed our first lecture in Africa, in Johannesburg, followed the publication of the first King Report on corporate governance, a major first step towards acceptable international standards aimed at attracting more inward investment. Arguably this was the beginning of the journey for the whole continent towards better governance in Africa and we feel privileged to have played a small part in that beginning.

Over the subsequent years we had the opportunity to help senior representatives from some of the largest companies and parastatals in Southern Africa first understand the importance of good corporate governance (as defined by the international community) and more significantly implement governance programmes in their organisations. In the process we also met some amazing people, again from both the public and private sector, from the World Bank to small consultancies and leading academics and government advisers to accounting practices, all of whom share our commitment to improving governance around the world.

It is now our intention to step up our efforts to collaborate with these various people and institutions to increase support, information and innovation, reaching as wider audience as possible and thus maximising our potential for change, for better governance and thus for better prospects for investment, entrepreneurialism and poverty reduction.

Indeed as we have already announced to our email list, we are excited to have an agreement with an equally passionate local consultancy in South Africa, Trueline Leadership Consulting, to run joint training and have launched our first course, aimed at small business owners and new entrepreneurs. Since it is essential to develop local capacity, we are supporting Trueline in building their company and brand, in partnership with ACG, rather than pushing our own brand and business directly.

This page on the Applied Corporate Governance website provides links to articles published on the subject of governance in Africa, with comment, analysis and implementation guidance to help all our many African visitors and all with an interest in Africa to make a difference. Our partnership with TLC provides opportunities to share content and so enrich our global-local – local-global perspectives.

If you have any specific questions related to a country, organisation or circumstances, we will be delighted to give a personal response: please fill in our contact form and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your interest in this website and in the future of governance in Africa.

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Africa - special section

About ACG

Applied Corporate Governance is a digital publisher and training company committed to highlighting the lessons learnt from governance failures and promoting sustainable growth through good corporate governance in private and public sectors and the third sector.